Katherine Mansfield (1888–1923) was a New Zealand-born writer, one of the masters of the modern short story. In collections such as Bliss and The Garden Party she captured moments of ordinary life with great subtlety. She died of tuberculosis at thirty-four.
Wellington
Kathleen Mansfield Beauchamp was born in Wellington, New Zealand, on 14 October 1888, the daughter of a banker. She studied in London at Queen's College from 1903 to 1906, returned home, and left New Zealand for good in 1908.
In London she led a bohemian life, made a brief and unhappy marriage, and published her first book, In a German Pension (1911), based on a stay in Bavaria.
Murry and the modernists
In 1911 she met the critic John Middleton Murry, whom she married in 1918. Through him she knew D. H. Lawrence, Virginia Woolf, whose Hogarth Press published her story Prelude, and the circle of Garsington.
The death of her beloved younger brother Leslie in 1915, in the war, turned her towards memories of her New Zealand childhood, which inspired her finest stories.
Illness
Diagnosed with tuberculosis in 1917, she spent much of her last years in search of a cure in the south of France, Italy and Switzerland. Bliss (1920) and The Garden Party (1922) won her wide recognition.
In 1922 she went to the Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man run by George Gurdjieff at Fontainebleau, near Paris, where she died on 9 January 1923.
Anecdotes
Woolf's rival
Virginia Woolf wrote in her diary that Katherine Mansfield's was the only writing she had ever been jealous of.
A name changed
She was born Kathleen Beauchamp and took the name Katherine Mansfield, from her grandmother's maiden name, for her writing.
Frequently asked questions
What is Katherine Mansfield famous for?
Her short stories, such as Prelude, At the Bay, The Garden Party, Bliss and Miss Brill.
Where was Katherine Mansfield born?
In Wellington, New Zealand, in 1888.
Where did she die?
At Fontainebleau, near Paris, on 9 January 1923, of tuberculosis.